GRANDMA’S TRIBUTE
 
Good afternoon.
 
First of all, thank you all for being here, whether in 3d or streamed.
I’m speaking today for both myself and my mum, and as someone for whom many of these memories are 3rd hand, I hope I can do them justice.
 
As everyone here knows, Anna was an extraordinary person in so many ways, not least because of the age at which she passed – an age which justifies official royal acknowledgement.
 
This was perhaps down to her obsession with prunes, bran, and all other forms of roughage. Combine that with a lifetime alcohol consumption of 4 glasses of crème de menthe, and you have, perhaps a recipe for a long, healthy, but arguably puritan life. Let’s hope genes have a part to play too.
 
Physical tenacity aside, she was boundlessly strong in so many other ways. As a woman with a very definitive world view on how others should behave, she surprisingly never applied that to her own children’s career paths.
 
Nevertheless, my mother recalls how, aged 17, she planned on following the path of least resistance by becoming a bilingual secretary, but, knowing her potential, Anna combined forces with her best friend, Irene Pfarrer (mum’s French teacher), and they were successful in convincing her to embark upon a university degree. As a result, post studies, mum went on to begin temp work at the BBC (something which wouldn’t have been considered without said degree), and ultimately fell into what became her defining professional vocation for the next 32 years.
 
As I understand, Ray, too, found his vocation through his parents’ persistence in the importance of structural education, and they took great pride in his subsequent careers.
 
Having safely seen her two children into successful adult life, she and grandpa then became incredibly proactive in the extended family which ensued through their respective marriages.
 
My grandparents moved to Winchester after their retirement, in fact, just in time to see me into the world.  They were keen to fulfil the old maxim that once you retire you never have time for anything – Grandma, having had a successful and busy career as a teacher while bringing up two children, threw herself into a whirl of local activity, becoming a stalwart of the local Lib Dems, helping church groups, distributing leaflets and being active in the Neighbourhood Watch. She was once, and only once, “fired” from any job. The reason being, as a coffee volunteer, the church couldn’t get insurance for the over-90s.
 
And here is where I can bring my own memories to bear. Every day, Monday to Friday, whilst at primary school, Grandma would pick me up and take me back to her house, while my parents were working, and we’d spend countless, and in hindsight, priceless hours playing Boggle, Scrabble, or Chess. I never quite got used to her brand of a “cup of tea”, essentially comprising boiling water, Sweetex, and a sad bag of supermarket own-label being added to the concoction for all of 45 seconds, but my recollections of those afternoons are nothing but halcyon, and deeply integral to my upbringing. After I became a professional choirboy  (which I’m sure you can tell from my current vocal tones, died a death along with my puberty), both her and grandpa were there, unfailingly, at every concert and recital, something I feel reflects her devotion to her extended family, doing so with nothing but pride.
 
Having gone on to boarding school and then university, we didn’t see much of each other over the next few years, but when I returned, with a comprehensive education and absolutely no idea what to do with it, I did the only thing that made sense, which was to make music wherever I could (albeit, at this point, non-professionally). Despite having zero interest or awareness in the form of contemporary music I was making at the time, both my grandparents generously hosted almost daily band rehearsals in their bedroom, it being the only space big enough to accommodate a drum kit.  Hopefully the neighbours were largely deaf.
 
In summary, we are, today, saying goodbye to a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, and fundamental force of good in this world, and she will be missed, loved, and remembered.